¹Royal Cries, p. jackson

002.

ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter two

━━ AFTER BREAKFAST THE next morning, Elisa and Percy walked down to inspect the cabins. It was Cabin Twelve's turn for inspection, and the head counselors normally did it, but Castor and Pollux, who both shared the head counselor spot, were out on a combat mission. And so, that left Elisa to do their job for them. And Percy shouldn't have been going with her, but his morning chore was to sort through reports for Chiron, and since both of them hated their morning chore they decided doing them together would be better than trying to get through them alone.

               Actually, it was Percy's suggestion at doing the chores together. Elisa felt it would be too rude to completely reject the idea in cold blood, so she had given him a smile through gritted teeth and agreed to the idea.

               They started at Cabin Three, Percy's cabin. Elisa raised her eyebrows at the state of the cabin, not believing what the boy had told her. He apparently had made his bed ( which certainly didn't look that way ) and had 'straightened' the Minotaur horn on the wall. Elisa's lip curled with humor and shock as she saw Percy write '⅘' on the inspection scroll.

               "That's generous," she told him, tearing the scroll out of his hands to mark out his score. She kicked a pair of dirty running shorts by her foot across the floor to prove her point.

               Percy flushed and shoved them underneath his bed, trying to get them out of sight from Elisa's amused eyes. "Hey, give me a break," he said. "I don't have Tyson cleaning up after me this summer."

               "That's sad." Elisa snickered. "Look—I'll give you a two out of five for pity."

               "A two?"

               "Two points of pity."

               Percy knew better than to push his luck so he left it at that and they moved on.

               The boy tried to skim through Chiron's stack of reports as they walked. There were messages from demigods, nature spirits, and satyrs all around the country, writing about the latest monster activity. Miniature battles were raging everywhere. Camp recruitment was down to zero. Satyrs were having trouble finding new demigods and bringing them to Half-Blood Hill because so many monsters were roaming the country. Thalia, who led the Hunters of Artemis, hadn't been heard from in months, and if Artemis knew what had happened to them, she wasn't sharing information.

               Elisa and Percy visited the Aphrodite Cabin, which of course got a five out of five. The beds were perfectly made. The clothes in everyone's footlocker were color-coordinated. Fresh flowers bloomed on the windowsills. Percy suggested that Elisa dock a point because the whole place reeked of designer perfume, but she only ignored him.

               "Great job as usual, Silena," the black-haired girl said.

               Silena nodded listlessly. The wall behind her bed was decorated with pictures of Beckendorf. She sat on her bunk with a box of chocolates on her lap, and Elisa remembered that her dad owned a chocolate store in the Village, which was how he'd caught the attention of Aphrodite.

               "You want a bonbon?" Silena asked. 'My dad sent them. He thought—" Her voice cracked. "He thought they might cheer me up."

               "Are they any good?" Percy asked.

               She shook her head. "They taste like cardboard."